Title: Through the Cracks
Author: Britani Gael
Series: Yu-Gi-Oh!
Rating: R
Warnings: Violence, Swearing
Summary: Apparently Kaiba never heard of Murphy's Law, or maybe he just thought that it didn't apply to him. But when his enemies are out for blood, and Kaiba is unable--or unwilling--to cooperate, Mokuba decides that if his brother won't help himself, he'll just have to do it for him. Needless to say, this makes Kaiba's day a hell of a lot worse...
Author's Notes: Much (much) thanks to my friend Ayu Ohseki, without whom this plot would have crashed and burned. She also came up with the villians name, and a nice bit of symbolism, besides. Her influence also made the plot a great deal darker...but ah, well. She's a cool person, anyway.
Disclaimer: Yu-Gi-Oh is the intellectual property of Kazuki Takahashi, and is being used in this fanfiction for fan purposes only. All situations, opinions and characters not belonging to Kazuki Takahashi are the intellectual property of Britani Gael. The hell with being clever, let's hear it for prewritten disclaimers...
* * *
Chapter One: Mistakes
"The highest realization of warfare is to attack the enemy's plans…"
Sun-Tzu, The Art of War
* * *
Damn, it was a long way down.
He never once considered jumping, though he knew that someone else in the same situation as him might. And maybe that other person had a point. Well, suicide had never seemed like a good out to him. Maybe it was because he was still half-convinced that he could never lose at anything, and taking a header off a cliff would be rather akin to admitting defeat.
Seto Kaiba took a step back from the edge. It had to be after midnight by now, and that meant that they were late. There could be a number of reasons as to why, and none of them were good. He was counting on the enemy's predictability.
That was one possible explanation: they were trying to throw him off. That just pissed him off. As if they hadn't fucked with him enough already.
The fact that they had chosen such an isolated place for the meeting hadn't passed Kaiba's notice. If he screwed this up, he expected to be found floating in the murky waters below sometime tomorrow. Perhaps the day after. Too bad he wouldn't be around to see if he was right.
He wasn't going to screw up.
There would be two of them, at least. They would have guns, something he was lacking. But he would have surprise on his side, since they wouldn't be expecting him to fight back with so much at stake. And, since tipping the scales any way he could certainly wouldn't hurt, he had also brought something else: a slim knife, slipped up the sleeve of his coat.
It was several minutes before he heard the sound he had been waiting for, the sound of crunching gravel, accompanied by the faint growl of a car engine. He looked up, and saw two points of light weaving themselves between the trees.
The car moved neither fast or slow, pulling itself out of the small thicket of trees and up the road Kaiba had hiked up close to an hour ago. He had had his driver drop him off some miles away, giving some excuse he couldn't really remember. He didn't want anyone knowing about this little meeting.
In other words, no backup plan.
The car ground to a stop about twenty feet away, the headlights directly in his face. He looked away and took a step to the side, and then tried to make out who was in the car, but the glare was still too much. So he stood, and he waited.
The engine didn't go off and neither did the headlights, giving the whole area a pale white wash. Instead, the rear two doors opened, and two men stepped out.
They were both tall, square jawed, with neatly pressed black suits. They might have been identical if it hadn't been for their facial expressions. One of them had a blank, serious look, the stereotypical man-in-black, while the other had a grim smile on his face. They both held their guns in plain sight.
The driver didn't get out, Kaiba noted. Perhaps they were in a hurry.
The smiling one reached back into the car, and hauled something out, before slamming the door. His partner shut his door as well.
"Nii-sama!"
The voice made Kaiba cringe, and he sincerely hoped that they were too far away to notice.
The man held Mokuba with a grip on his arm, and while the gun wasn't actually pointing at his brother, it was far too close for comfort. Mokuba wasn't even struggling, he had probably given up on that a long time ago.
The two men walked towards Kaiba, and came to a stop about ten feet away, maybe a little less. Mokuba walked with them, a desperate look on his face.
"Nii-sama, they're going to—"
The man holding him hit Mokuba on the side of the head sharply with the butt of his gun. Mokuba gasped in pain.
Kaiba held himself still, nearly biting a hole through his lip in the process. He considered reinstating his threat that he would kill anyone who touched Mokuba.
No point. He was going to kill them anyway.
"Let him go," Kaiba said, almost managing to capture the cool collectiveness he was going for.
The smiling goon looked towards the serious one, who was probably the one in charge. The serious one shook his head. "Do you have it?" he asked.
Kaiba reached a hand into his coat pocket, and his fingers curled around a small plastic case. He pulled the disk out, and held it up so they could see it.
"How do we know that has the information?" the serious one asked.
"I don't know and I don't care," Kaiba said dryly. But the truth was, he had been wondering the exact same thing. The answer he had come to was that they didn't actually need him to bring them the information; it would just make it easier on them if he did. "Let him go," Kaiba repeated.
Smiler again looked to Serious, who shrugged. Like it didn't really matter. Very loud warning bells might have gone off in Kaiba's head, if he hadn't already had a good idea of their plans to begin with.
The man holding Mokuba let him go with a shove, sending Mokuba onto his hands and knees on the ground, and Kaiba almost snapped.
It didn't seem to matter to Mokuba, though. Scrambling to his feet, he covered the distance between them, and threw his arms around his brother. He buried his face into the folds of Kaiba's coat, crying quietly.
Kaiba let a comforting hand drop to Mokuba's shoulder, but didn't take his eyes off the two men.
"The disk," the serious one said.
Kaiba studied them for a few more seconds. They held their guns lazily, pointed between the ground and him. That could change in less than a second, he knew. He would have to be quick.
He tossed the disk in the dirt between them, underhand. Then he shifted his right arm slightly. The knife slid into his hand. He hoped that this would go as he had imagined it.
His grip on Mokuba's shoulder tightened.
The serious man took a step forward, and bent down to pick up the disk.
Kaiba struck out with a sharp kick to the face, shoving Mokuba to the ground. The man fell backwards, with a surprised yell.
He rushed the second man before he had a chance to shoot, using his left had to pull the gun to the side. The man pulled the trigger by reflex, sending a few bullets spinning off harmlessly into the night. With his right hand, Kaiba sank the blade up to the hilt.
The man's face went slack, his mouth hung open. Both arms dropped to clutch his stomach. He fell back like the man before him had, but seemingly in slow motion, and without a sound.
"Nii-sama!"
Kaiba spun around. The other man had gotten to his feet, his blank expression replaced with one of panic and pain. He was raising his gun.
Mokuba barreled into him, knocking him off balance. He recovered in a second, but it was a second too late.
Kaiba grabbed the gun hand and twisted it hard, and pulled the weapon out of his grasp easy. He used it to cuff the man on the head, before dropping the gun to the side. He then twisted the man's arm behind his back, taking a calculated step back. The he sent the man spinning with a shove, releasing his grip.
Kaiba, of course, had been careful to keep track of where the edge was throughout the fight. His opponent had probably wished he had done the same.
The man stumbled back a few steps, before his feet discovered the lack of ground. He spun his arms, bent and twisted almost comically, trying to regain his balance. Then he was gone. He hadn't even screamed.
The entire exchange had taken less than a minute.
It wasn't until he heard the car door open that he remembered the driver.
Now he was the one who was too late.
* * *
"Well?"
There was a long pause on the other end of the line, longer than necessary. "They're dead, sir."
Masuda sat up quickly, then he relaxed. "I assume you aren't talking about the Kaiba brothers," he said smoothly, his voice showing no signs of his momentary panic.
"Of course I'm not talking about the Kaiba brothers. I'm talking about my men!"
"Hmm, yes, well, mercenaries come, mercenaries go." Masuda sat back in his chair, idly shuffling papers around on his desk. "You'll find replacements for them soon, will you not?"
"Not soon, they're not that easy to replace. They were the best I—"
Masuda snorted. "Apparently, they weren't good enough. How were they killed?"
"Various ways. It seems that Kaiba was carrying a knife."
"So what? Your men had guns." Masuda sighed. Oh well, perhaps this was for the best. "A knife can't cut from a foot away. Your men let Kaiba get close, that was their mistake."
"Sir, I—"
"Yes?"
"Understood, sir. Do you have any further instructions?"
"Hmm, yes. Prepare five, perhaps ten men. Make sure they are competent. Then wait for my instructions." After all, since obviously you can't handle these things on your own, I must spoon-feed directions to you.
Again, a very long pause. "Understood." The crack of the phone hanging up was enough to make Masuda wince, if he hadn't been expecting it.
Masuda leaned forward and switched the speakerphone off.
So things hadn't gone as he planned. It didn't matter. In fact, it almost made Masuda smile. This was just proof that Kaiba was caught in a trap that even he couldn't get out of. That thought was strangely satisfying.
And anyway, Masuda was beginning to doubt the wisdom behind his plan. Killing the boy, destroying the company…it wasn't right, somehow.
It wasn't enough.
* * *